It didn’t take much sleuthing to come to the conclusion that Santa Cruz would re-design their ever-popular Nomad frame for 2009. With the complete re-design of the Santa Cruz Blur LT this season, it made sense that Santa Cruz would pass along all that goodness to the Nomad. I’ve ridden the previous Nomad and have lots of friends who currently ride and love their Nomads.  The new version looks more refined and includes the many improvements that were introduced with the new Blur LT, namely: grease ports, revised linkages and suspension ratios, new frame design with a reduction in the top-tube “hump”, 5mm less travel (160 instead of 165mm) and a few other changes that will likely come out over...
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Salsa Cycles has been one of those fringe manufacturers for years. yeah, you’ve likely ridden a bike with one of their quick-release seatclamps, but you’ve likely never seen a Salsa Cycles bike on the trail–I know I never have.  All that is about to change with the introduction of the new Salsa El Kaboing trailbike for 2009. Coming in January 2009 (frame-only available September 2008), the Salsa El Kaboing looks to be a stellar trailbike with some interesting features. One of the first things that caught my eye was the post-mount rear disc brake bosses. Yeah, I know… a funny thing to notice.  But, here’s the point.  Most fork manufacturers have switched from the International Standard brake bosses to post-mount...
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I’ve got so many water bottles under the sink it makes my head spin. Actually, my wife hates that I have so many under there and threatens to recycle them nearly every day. The problem is that mixed in the pile of water bottles are the one or two that actually work well.  They are the bottles that don’t leak and that squirt a perfect stream every time. Sharing shelf space with the good bottles are the leakers and “squeeze so hard you’ll get carpal tunnel” bottles. When I inadvertently slap one of the hated bottles in my bottle cage for the daily ride, I’m kicking myself for not grabbing a good one. At this point, I’m willing to toss the...
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As the mega cycling sites continue their online dominance, what is your Local Bike Shop (LBS) to do? Many have Web sites, but most don’t have the manpower or technical savvy to have a full-fledged online storefront with in-house fulfillment. Inventory management and logistics can be daunting, so your LBS typically keeps plodding along selling locally. Some are successful and others struggle. Ritchey Design recognizes the plight of the LBS and wants to foster more support of their local dealers (the bike store around the corner)....
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As suspension fork designs have evolved over the years, the sweet spot over the past 2-3 seasons has been in the “all-mountain” category. While dual-crown forks have been mostly relegated to DH-only duty, the long-travel single-crown fork has become the staple for freeriders and all-mountain riders alike. Initially, Manitou thought it had found the ticket when the 1.5-inch steerer tube was introduced. Single-crown forks were finally supposed to be burly and light enough to withstand roof-droping punishment without deforming your head tube.  While the 1.5-inch head tube has provided some great benefits, the misleading marketing hype was that 1 1/8-inch head tubes weren’t burly enough to handle a long-travel single-crown fork. That argument has since been proven a farce. I’ve been riding...
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While some people choose to eat during lunch, I prefer to ride on the nearby singletrack trails in Draper, Utah. With the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Oak Hollow, Corner Canyon and Clarks Trails all within a mile of my office, it’s the perfect lunchtime snack… on singletrack, that is.  A few weeks ago, a friend keyed me in on the Clark’s Trail Time Trial. There’s a section of the trail that’s used as a self-timed time trial for those willing to partake in the fun. While I’m no XC racer, I thought I’d give it a go.  Having ridden the trail several times untimed, I had high hopes for myself since I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for a long...
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I still remember the very first Rocky Mountain bike I ever saw. It was the URT Pipeline at a local bike shop back in 1999. At that time, the purple-colored Pipeline was the lightest and burliest all-mountain/freeride bike on the market–I wanted one! So, in 2000, I began my love affair with Rocky Mountain as I bought my first full-suspension bike–a Rocky Mountain Element Race. After getting my feet wet, I then upgraded to the first-generation Rocky Mountain Slayer in 2001. That bike got me hooked on more travel and was the beginning of my big bike movement in 2002-2004 before I began settling in on the current crop of lightweight all-mountain bikes that have since come on...
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One of the unsung heroes of mountain biking, tire options are as plentiful as flavors of ice cream. Whether you like skinny and slick or wide and knobby, there are enough choices to fill your every need. Over the years, I’ve gone from riding 2.1’s up to 2.7’s, and have now settled in on the current crop of 2.35-ish all-mountain tires. My favorites have been the High Roller and Minion tires from Maxxis and the Kenda Nevegal–all in 2.35 widths.  But, I have yet to ride many bikes equipped with WTB tires, until the Rocky Mountain Slayer SXC 70 that I’ve currently got for testing. How does the WTB Prowler XT 2.3 compare to those venerable treads?...
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There are many variations on the two of the most common suspension designs: Horst-link (owned by Specialized) and the standard 4-bar. Both camps have some major players with Specialized, Ellsworth, Norco, Titus and others using the Horst-link design and Kona, Turner, Jamis, Transition, Ventana, Rocky Mountain and others using variations on the standard 4-bar (which is really a single pivot with some extra linkages). What’s the difference, you might ask?  Well, boiled down, it is as subtle as the rearward pivot location… seatstay or chainstay.  The Horst-link places the pivot and brake mounts on the seatstay, thus removing braking and pedaling forces from the suspension movement while the standard 4-bar places the pivot and brake mounts on the chainstay, which can...
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After a long ski season (I’m not really complaining), the upper-elevation trails are taking their own sweet time to thaw.  Thanks to a cooler-than-average Spring, the snowpack has remained intact.  So much so that if you drove up to Alta or Snowbird, you’d swear it was November or December up there.  We needed the snow and I loved the ski season, but I’m ready for some high-altitude singletrack… American Fork Canyon style. After pinging the crew on UtahMountainBiking.com for trail beta, I quickly received first-hand confirmation that the intended trail route was 100% rideable and getting drier by the day.  “Wow,” I thought.  “And all this time I’d been thinking it was unrideable.” Well, truth be told, it has been unrideable...
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